


Gamble

by ythmir



Series: 182 series [2]
Category: Midnight Cinderella (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Modern Fantasy AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2020-03-20 07:18:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18987898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ythmir/pseuds/ythmir
Summary: in which the twins stubbornly ask a magical coin pusher to tell them an important secret





	Gamble

     They always did say that to for a wish to be granted, all it took was a single step. One jump into the unknown. A flurry of wings taking flight. The urgent pressing of coins into an arcade game that had too bright lights and dissonant music.

     The granting of a wish was a gamble; you gain one thing and forsake another. And the Crawford twins stood and bet fifteen silver pieces into a coin pusher to see if they could double their boon.

     One wish. Two souls. Fifteen silver pieces.

     Alyn Crawford was the younger, brash and a little bit tongue-tied. He closed his fist around his wrist to stop himself from pacing. “How long?”

     “Not too long, now.” Leo Crawford was the older, subtler and craftier. He traced the movement of the coins with his fingers on the glass. “It has to be swallowed.”

     “It’s a coin pusher. It doesn’t get swallowed. _It’s pushed_.” Alyn sighed.

      “Patience, little brother.” Leo whispered. “All in good time.”

     Alyn harrumphed but he trusted his twin, though he may never outwardly say it. Leo, who saw hidden plots and unseen characters, who could grab at guiding hands and prodding fingers when Alyn could not. 

     Leo who paid a price for this next step, for this next piece to find the other pieces that would solve the puzzle that was their entire lives. 

     Alyn, could only see the surface, could only see the movements of pawns and constructs, could only _know for certain_ which one lied and which one told the truth. Alyn, could only read the smallest disturbances on a still lake’s surface, could only read the way his twin’s eyes gleamed red, the way Leo’s mouth twitched, the way his eyes hungered and stared and stared and stared.

     In a way, Alyn trusted Leo because Leo knew better when it comes to some things, because Leo could see the bigger picture. And Alyn could content himself with the minute details, could content himself with the knowledge that he could always pull his twin back from the precipice if it looked like they could fall.

     So Alyn stared at the coins, watched as each and every single one of their silver pieces was pushed and pushed until the very last one fell and then was _swallowed_.

     Alyn blinked, rubbed his eyes, and was sure that he saw a mouth with too many teeth instead of a coin pusher. He fought the urge to back away, fought it with the urge to protect Leo who was smiling, leaning forward –

     “Maybe try your own advice?” Alyn pulled Leo back from the machine, which was now no longer a machine but turning into something pulsing and alive. Its wires were tongues, the coins inside were now inside mouths within mouths, which were hissing and spitting like serpents. And the once blinking lights were suddenly eyes, and they focused on everything else except for the twins, as if it was afraid of those who paid too much for little things.

     Alyn and Leo exchanged glances and when they looked back the coin pusher was ordinary again, except for its moving neon sign. It was rapidly showing spelled letters quite wrong, some sort of alien language that Alyn could not place.

     “It’s asking us what we want.” Leo breathed out.

     “You can read this?”

     “Only barely.” Leo pressed his hands on the glass to get a closer look.

     “Is that safe?”

     “We’re conversing with an unknown wish-granter trapped in a coin pusher in the middle of an abandoned arcade. I think we are too far gone from anything remotely safe.”

     And there was that point.

     “I mean,” Alyn sighed, “the Rules. We have to know the Rules.”

     “It says not to worry about it.” Leo chuckled.

     “We’re not seriously taking it for its word, are we?” Alyn frowned.

     Leo smiled at him and gave a pointed look. Then he turned back at the machine. “It says it’s getting impatient.”

     Alyn clenched his fists, banged the machine once. His own anger was surface level, broken wrists and split lips. And at the moment, it was simmering to a boil, ready to bore a hole into coin pusher. Or three.

     “Fifteen names.” Alyn said to the glass. “All we need is fifteen names. One name for each coin, that’s the deal.”

     For a moment, the machine’s display showed nothing. Perhaps in defiance. Perhaps in an act of self-preservation. Then, it asked them a question, in clear and concise Wysterian alphabet: WHAT FOR?

     “Don’t worry about it.” Leo cooed in a way that was cold, that was ice. That was anger and frustration at being cut so near and so close from their prize. 

Leo traced his fingers on the glass and then pushed until the glass _cracked_.

     Fifteen names for the fifteen families that had been invited to the ball.

Fifteen names for the fifteen families that survived.

     Fifteen names for fifteen families that suddenly did not know what had happened when the Crawford house burned down, who suddenly refused to speak, refused to look them in the eyes and tell them.

      _Who did this who did this who did this?_

     “Fifteen names.” Leo did not relent, even as the coin pusher spewed obvious profanities, even as the glass nearly caved under the pressure. “You will give us fifteen names.”

     OR WHAT?

     Alyn raised a fist, but Leo stopped him with a smile. Alyn could bellow. Alyn could smash a face into a pulp and feel better for t it. But Leo’s anger ran deeper, ran truer, ran wilder. Crushed hands and smashed windpipes. And Leo looked at the machine with the same raging cunning that Alyn had always shied away from, had always been thankful it had never been aimed at him.

     “You will give us the names, little wish granter, and we will set you free.”

     Alyn waited with bated breath, with several heartbeats, with what felt like a quick stretch of infinity. Then, the coin pusher glowed green.

     YESYESYESYESYEYES.

     Leo looked back at him, all smiles and easy promises. Alyn reined in his rage, reined in his emotions, put on a neutral frown and tried his best to feel a semblance of pity for what waited for it in the end..

     Between the two of them, Leo smiled more often but at least Alyn’s frowns were truer. 

**Author's Note:**

> hello! i've only just recently learned how to do "series" here in ao3 ＼\٩( 'ω' )و //／ well here i am! thank you so much for your continued attention to this work! drop by my tumblr for more rambles and works! comments are very much welcome!


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